3 Inspiring Story Ideas You Can Use Today in Donor Communications

Your organisation exists because someone saw real people (or animals) experiencing real conflict and decided to do something about it.

If your charity communications can focus on a specific person and a specific conflict, and if you can invite the donor in as a hero, then you’ve got a better chance of donor engagement.

So without further adieu, here are three story types you can use today to revive donor communications. These examples of high-performing, results-yielding stories are from www.sofii.org. And they’re excellent examples of what it means to hone in on a specific conflict and then to make the donor a helper, a nurturer and a hero.

“The mailing focused on the story of Aberash, a 13-year-old girl from Ethiopia. Aberash endured female genital mutilation at the age of three and a forced marriage at 12 to a man who subjected her to sexual violence until WOMANKIND’s partners enabled her to leave him safely and obtain a divorce. Now, she travels the country with their support to tell her story and encourages other young women to speak out against harmful traditions.”

Results: “The mailing’s results far exceeded targets. It achieved a response rate of 2.41 per cent, average gift level of £26.35 and generated income of £17,078 (beating its financial target by 300 per cent)”

Story Type 2: Inspiration in Suffering

Example: Association of International Cancer Research Direct Mail (Legacy) from www.sofii.org

“The Good Agency decided to begin by asking donors about their experiences with cancer. Initially they were sent a mailing asking them to share their cancer stories. The cover letter was written by a member of AICR’s staff, where she talked about her own experiences of cancer and encouraged the reader to do the same.

It was a real, personal, one-to-one communication and the response from donors was phenomenal. AICR received hundreds of moving, heart-breaking and touching stories.

They then produced a book featuring some of the most inspiring, funny and moving stories about people’s experiences with cancer (available here: http://www.aicr.org.uk/InspiringStories.stm) and by talking about legacies in the covering letter and asking about pledges.”

Results: “The AICR legacy campaign phase has elicited 114 pledges, eight responses indicating the intention to leave a legacy and 59 requests for further information. Based on an average legacy gift of £20,000, the pledges will be worth over £2.2m, if they are all fulfilled.”

“TheLittle Book of Change was designed to bring to life a range of outcomes for children that had previously been presented in a statistical report. Individual stories of children and families are shown through letters, poems, stories, magazine articles and drawings. All the words are authentic and show a range of ways in which the supporter’s money has been used to ultimately make children’s lives better. A hard-backed version for donors who had given £100k or more was hand made with materials stuck-in like a scrap-book. The cheaper printed version for other supporters demonstrates the versatility of this product.”

Results: “The Little Book of Change did not ask for a donation, we have received good feedback from those that received it who felt that valued and that their donation had made a difference.”

Enter your email address to follow this blog and once a week, you'll get simple practical tools to infuse your donor communications with the emotional power of storytelling and donor-centered writing techniques!